BUTTERWORTH – Parti Warisan Sabah hopes its brand of multiracial politics, with its emphasis on diversity as a strength, will allow it to capture a few seats in Penang in the next general election.
Its vice-president Datuk Junz Wong, when launching the Penang Warisan leadership at the Pearl View Hotel here, said the Sabah-based party wants to break away from the old style of politics that is decided by race and religion.
Warisan is expected to contest a number of parliament and state seats in Penang in the 15th general election, which must be held by September next year at the latest.
Wong said Warisan will be making “electoral history” by fusing Sabah’s and Sarawak’s brand of multiracial politics with politics in the peninsula, more so in a diverse state like Penang.
“We want to make the peninsula more like Sabah and Sarawak in terms of its multiracial culture,” Wong said, who described the next election as an opportunity for Malaysians in the peninsula to discard race and religion by supporting his party.
“This is the first time. Therefore, we are asking our brothers and sisters on the peninsula to give us a chance to create a multiracial Malaysia.”
Warisan practises a membership quota of 30% each for Malays, Indians and Chinese, while the remaining 10% is for minorities.
Wong also dismissed the notion that Warisan is a “surrogate” of former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, or that it had a hidden agenda in wanting to contest in the peninsula.
Warisan supported the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition when it held federal power, but the party did not support PH’s memorandum of understanding for political stability with Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob last year when he took office.
The party’s foray into the peninsula and plans to compete in seats held by PH parties also raises questions about the opposition’s unity when facing the general election.
Wong today added that Warisan has a role to play in returning political stability to the country, and the current instability has been caused by race-based politics, he added.
“We want to ensure that after the election is over, the focus is back towards economic recovery. From arresting the escalating living costs to inflation and creating good jobs as well as stopping the bleeding of the ringgit at the global exchange rate, there is much work to do rather than to indulge in politics only,” said Wong.
The Penang lineup is led by former two-term Jelutong MP Jeff Ooi, who is assisted by former state PKR leader, Sharuddin Mohd Shariff.
Dr Rajiv Bhanot, Warisan’s chief coordinator in the peninsula, said that the state chapter’s leadership is made up purely of Penangites as Warisan wants to prove that it is not only a Sabah-based party but is one for all Malaysians. – The Vibes, August 7, 2022
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